ROME--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Efma, an association of more than 3,300 retail financial services
companies in 130 countries, and Accenture (NYSE:ACN) announced the
winners of their fifth annual Distribution & Marketing Innovation (DMI)
Awards for retail banking at the DMI Awards ceremony in Rome today. The
program brings together projects, innovators and institutions from
around the world to celebrate the industry’s most innovative
distribution and marketing initiatives.

“It’s exciting to see so much innovation from companies around the
world”

The winners were selected through a combination of votes by a panel of
judges comprising senior retail bankers from around the world and by
Efma members and non-members from financial institutions online. Each
entry was assessed using three criteria: its originality; its strategic
capacity to generate long-term competitive edge and return on
investment; and its adaptability for use in other markets and countries.

The winners of the 2017 Efma-Accenture 2017 DMI Awards are:

DenizBank (Turkey) won the Best New Product or Service award
for Augmented Agricultural Banking App. This award was voted on at the
awards ceremony, after six finalists pitched their innovations live to
gain votes from attendees onsite and online.

Sberbank (Russian Federation) won the Big Data, Analytics & AI
award for Tips in Sberbank Online, an artificial-intelligence-based
tool that can help users change their financial habits for the better,
saving them money, time and effort.

KBC Bank (Belgium) won the Customer Experience & Engagement
award with My car, which uses blockchain technology to create a
seamless experience in car loans, from the instant the customer signs
the order to the moment they drive their car off the dealer’s lot.

mBank (Poland) won the New Business Ecosystems award for mPower
Business Starter, which integrates government, bank and accounting
services to create an easy and intuitive user experience, enabling
customers to become entrepreneurs.

Barclaycard (UK) won the Wallets & Payments category with
Barclaycard Grab+Go, which transforms a shopper’s smartphone into a
‘pocket checkout’ so they can scan the items they want to buy as they
pick them off the store shelves, enabling them to complete their
purchase with a single click.

Intesa Sanpaolo (Italy) won the Workforce Empowerment &
Behavior award with its ISP Digital Learning portal and smartphone
app, which increases employee engagement and entices them to learn
anytime, anywhere through a Netflix-inspired digital learning service.

N26 (Germany) was named Global Innovator Challenger Player for
bringing innovative services to market over the last year, including
N26 Business, an account that enables freelancers and self-employed
workers to navigate both their business and private finances, and a
new digitized insurance service in partnership with Insurtech Clark.

BBVA (Spain) was named Global Innovator Established Player for
the innovations it brought to market in 2017. These include the BBVA
API Market open and global API platform, which enables companies of
all sizes to access a secure and powerful set of financial tools to
help them innovate.

“It’s exciting to see so much innovation from companies around the
world,” said Vincent Bastid, Efma’s CEO. “The spectrum of innovations
that we’ve seen this year has never been so diverse, with major
developments in 2017 including blockchain progress, advances in
personalization, encouragement of entrepreneurship, expansion of hubs,
evolution of banks in motion, empowerment of customers through
self-service and self-shopping, and the combination of AI and Big Data.
As institutions push the boundaries, they are creating new and exciting
ways to engage with customers and provide the products, services and
experiences for a digital-first world. Congratulations to all of this
year’s winners for their achievements.”

Piercarlo Gera, global managing director of Accenture
Distribution and Marketing Services, said, “We continue to be
impressed with how DMI Award winners leverage digital technologies to
create innovations that generate value for clients—in terms of customer
experience—and also for banks, to help gain market share, drive revenue
growth and deepen client relationships, while reducing costs. Digital
industrialization in managing the underlying processes in customer
engagement is rapidly increasing year after year as customer experience
is increasingly critical given the competition that retail banks are
facing from non-traditional competitors. While the majority of this
year’s winning banks are from Europe, they represent numerous countries,
showing that innovation knows no boundaries.”

To learn more about these innovations, visit www.efma.com/innovations.
Continue following the conversation on Twitter at #DMIAwards2017.

About Efma

A global non-profit organisation established in 1971 by banks and
insurance companies, Efma facilitates networking between
decision-makers. It provides quality insights to help banks and
insurance companies make the right decisions to foster innovation and
drive their transformation. Over 3,300 brands in 130 countries are Efma
members. Headquarters in Paris. Offices in London, Brussels, Barcelona,
Stockholm, Bratislava, Dubai, Mumbai and Singapore. Learn more at www.efma.com.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a
broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital,
technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and
specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business
functions – underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network –
Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help
clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their
stakeholders. With approximately 425,000 people serving clients in more
than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the
world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.